Wiper party sets out presidential bid plans

The party's National Delegates Conference (NDC) will convene on December 10 to ratify and endorse the party leader's presidential bid. PHOTO: COURTESY

Wiper's top organ will next month endorse Kalonzo Musyoka as the party's presidential candidate.

The party's National Delegates Conference (NDC) will convene on December 10 to ratify and endorse the party leader's presidential bid.

Yesterday, party secretary general Hassan Omar said the party had resolved Kalonzo will battle it out with CORD co-principals Raila Odinga (ODM) and Moses Wetang'ula (Ford Kenya) for the opposition coalition's presidential ticket.

The party's National Executive Council (NEC) met for three hours and endorsed a decision to call a National Delegates Conference (NDC) next month to ratify Kalonzo's candidature.

"We have agreed as NEC that on December 10, the National Delegates Conference will converge in Nairobi to ratify and endorse party leader Kalonzo Musyoka to vie for presidency," said Omar.

The party leaders called on Raila and Wetang'ula to support Kalonzo.

"As members of Wiper we have said the other CORD co-principals should also support Mr Musyoka," he said.

However, NEC did not receive a report from the disciplinary committee on the process of kicking out party rebels who have since joined the Jubilee Party.

According to NEC, the disciplinary committee is expected to table its report on the status of the disciplinary process on November 24.

The party advised the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to lease electoral technology for use in the 2017 polls instead of buying it.

According to the party, international companies were ready to lease the technology to Kenya.

"The technology we are talking about was used in the last Indian general elections and even in Sierra Leone," said Omar.

Under a leasing arrangement, IT companies in collaboration with IEBC will recruit and train 60,000 youths on how to use the technology.

Omar said the leasing companies were willing to deploy the technology at Sh30, 600 per unit.

Each set of leased equipment can perform voter registration, voter verification and results transmission. It can also save data and produce print-outs.

For far-flung constituencies, the technology has a provision for using dry cells.

With each polling station requiring two units, the 57,000 polling stations stipulated under the new electoral laws would require not more than Sh3.5 billion to lease the technology.

The party argued that payment of IEBC staff would only cost another Sh1 billion while logistics would cost another Sh1 billion.